**WINNER OF PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY**
**WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD (Nonfiction)**
Shortlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown Award
Finalist, LA Times Book Prize


A landmark biography of one of the twentieth century's most compelling figures, rewriting much of the known narrative.

Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X - including siblings, classmates, friends, cellmates, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become hundreds of hours of interviews into a portrait that would separate fact from fiction.

The result is this magisterial work that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his followers stir with purpose to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting his life not only within the political struggles of his day but also against the larger backdrop of American history, this remarkable masterpiece traces his path from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.

An author who saw Malcolm X speak and could not stand the phrase 'we may never know', Payne writes cinematically from start to finish and delivers extraordinary revelations - from a hair-raising scene of Malcolm's clandestine meeting with the KKK, to a minute-by-minute account of his murder in Harlem in 1965, in which he makes the case for the complicity of the American government.

Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle and the story of the twentieth century.

"Payne goes into gripping detail... In this highly worthy effort, [he] has produced a well-written and deeply engaging biography of a uniquely American figure whose life offers a matchless window into our continuing national struggle over race" - The American Scholar

"Compelling... events are portrayed in cinematic detail... this book captures the uncompromising clarity that speaks to this moment of Black Lives Matter" - The Observer

"The Paynes, fortified by hundreds of interviews with family and associates, have thrown some fresh light on the legend created by the Autobiography" - The Sunday Times

"This new biography of Malcolm X paints a much more detailed and intimate picture of the man than previous works have ever been able to do" - Today

"It's to this biography's credit that it attempts to scrape away some of the mythology... Payne doesn't airbrush the facts" - The Times

"Brimming with detail, insight and feeling... Nobody has written a more poetic account... Malcolm's presence is beautifully rendered within the rhythm of Payne's masterly storytelling" - The New York Times

"This book will always be timely, because the story it narrates is timeless... Les and Tamara Payne are especially good in detailing Malcolm's early years of delinquency and rebirth. Like Robert Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson, The Dead Are Arising delves deeply into the wider context of Malcolm's world" - The Spectator

"The Dead Are Arising sets out to provide a much fuller picture of the life and death of Malcolm X [than his autobiography]... The recent spate of protests have reminded us that we need the lessons of Malcolm now perhaps more than ever" - The Guardian

"The Dead Are Arising is a meticulously researched, compassionately rendered, and fiercely analytical examination of the radical revolutionary as a human being... Payne's biography forces us to understand Malcolm X as his various communities experienced him-as a brilliant, troubled, selfish, generous, sincere, ugly, and beautiful Black radical... The Dead Are Arising forces us to ask deeper, more complicated questions about the Black people and places from which our heroes come" - The Atlantic

"Fascinating and essential... Payne adds invaluably to our understanding of Malcolm's story" - The Washington Post

"This compelling biography of Malcolm X is an appropriately ambitious and forceful book. Delivering an outstanding portrait through lucid prose, it deserves and demands to be widely read" - Judges of the HWA Non-Fiction Crown Award

"Thirty years in the making and encompassing hundreds of original interviews, this magisterial biography of Malcolm X was completed by Les Payne's daughter after his death in 2018. Its strengths lie in its finely shaded, penetrating portrait of the Black activist and thinker, whose legacy continues to find fresh resonance today" - New York Times, Notable Books of 2020

"A monumental biography giving new meaning to our understanding of Malcolm X and his ever-expanding impact on American history... told in riveting prose, The Dead Are Arising is a major accomplishment that could set the bar for how we will define Malcolm X from now on" - The Voice

"A pensive, lyrical, and finely wrought portrait of young Malcolm Little's evolution into the icon known as Malcolm X... The Dead Are Arising brilliantly crafts a new origin story of the most important working-class Black leader ever produced... Les and Tamara Payne have produced an exceedingly valuable and important biography that adds immeasurably to our understanding of Malcolm X" - Los Angeles Review of Books